The First Day of Summer
by Leilarran
Summary: PostAlways - Castle and Beckett are enjoying a romantic lunch together when NYC starts falling apart around them and they are separated. What's going on? How will they navigate through this apocalyptic insanity? And more importantly, how will they find each other again? Be prepared for cheesy one-liners, violence, romance, and Richard Castle: Action Hero.


**So, I've decided to write a Castle disasterfic. Mostly because NYC gets destroyed ALL THE TIME IN MOVIES and like the freak I am, I always find myself wondering how Castle and Beckett would react to something like that. **_  
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**Be prepared for action, romance, cheesy one-liners, and Richard Castle: Action Hero.**

* * *

_PROLOGUE_

"Move!" she shouted at the man in the street. He was right in the middle of her line of sight, and if he didn't get out of the way he was going to end up with a bullet in the side of his face. Or worse. "Get out of the way!"

The man looked at her, obviously too dazed by the situation to really process what was going on. She gestured frantically for him to get down, move out of the way, anything to get him to be _anywhere else_. Slowly, comprehension dawned across his face and he hit the deck as fast as he could. Without a split-second of hesitation, she put two into the helmet of the dangerous figure not five feet behind him. Metal crumpled onto asphalt with a crunch, and death was once again postponed for another minute. She forced herself to take a couple slow, deep breaths. Pulling out her phone, she tried to call Castle again.

"It keeps going straight to voicemail," Alexis said, trying her best to keep her voice steady. "I've been trying."

"He probably just broke it," she replied, doing her best to reassure the girl. "He'll catch up with us."

"Yeah..."

Just then, faint cries for help caught her ear. "Did you hear that?" she asked her redheaded companion, who nodded. She froze and tried to listen for it again.

"It's coming from over there." Looking off to her left, the former NYPD homicide detective saw a school bus, overturned by a large hole in the street. Little hands were trying to open the windows, and she wasted no time running towards them.

The bus was in bad shape, and was situated in such a way that the roof exit would dump them all into the pothole when opened, and the rear exit was blocked by debris and the remains of a blue sedan. It looked like she was going to have to climb on top of the bus, pry open the side door, and lift them out one at a time. Relaying this plan to Alexis, she holstered her gun and began slowly clambering on top of the yellow vehicle.

"Don't worry, I'm a police officer," she said calmly to the frightened kids inside, their cries muffled by the windows. "I'm here to help you."

...  
...

His lungs burned as he ran at full sprint around a corner into an alley, feeling rushing wind behind him as he narrowly avoided another whizzing metal machine. Blood was threatening to drip into his eyes from the gash along his hairline, annoying him with the sticky wetness. Breathing heavily, his mind briefly entertained the idea of him as a rugged and bloody action hero before he skidded to a stop and crouched to hide behind a metal trash bin. The soldier hadn't turned fast enough to follow him into the alley, and he was going to use this brief respite from the chaos to gather his thoughts.

He used his sleeve to wipe some of the blood out of his eyes. First and foremost, he had to locate Beckett. She was on her way to find Alexis, and with any luck they were already together and hiding out in the basement of some safe building. It was probably foolish of him to consider Kate actually staying still and doing as he asked, but the thought of her out of harm's way with his daughter was an illusion he was sticking with.

The sound of footsteps echoing down the alley made him freeze and press himself harder into the brick wall behind him. The trash bins smelled like someone had dumped a body in them last week, and as he shut his eyes tight he prayed to every god he could think of that the smell would be enough to turn the soldiers away. Alone and weaponless, there was no way he was a match for them.

The footsteps came closer; an ominous, heavy crunching sound as metal boots crushed debris and loose asphalt underneath them. He desperately looked around for anything that could be used as a bludgeoning tool and saw nothing but a broken chair leg.

Well, that was better than nothing. Slowly, he reached out and wrapped his hand around it, knuckles turning white with the stress.

Crunch.  
Crunch.

Crunch.

The footsteps were slowing down. They knew he was here. His brain began to overwhelm him with images of Alexis and Kate, all his happiest memories motivating him to grip his weapon tighter.

He was going to fight.

He was going to see his family again.


End file.
